While volunteering today, Sarah said she has seen over 20 butterflies!

When I came home and was cleaning my wellies + shovel,

I saw a caterpillar happily chomping on a leaf in my garden….

Philip Treacy’s extravagant and beautiful hats are works of art. This butterfly adorned hat was created for an Alexander McQueen show. Below the Alexander McQueen Spring 2011 gowns with digital prints were adorned with butterflies fluttering up the neckline as were the shoes.

The butterfly lays a tiny dewdrop of an egg on a juicy milkweed leaf.

Inside the egg is her baby. When the baby hatches, however, she is not a beautiful butterfly like her mother. She is a caterpillar, who eats and chews on the milkweed leaf for two weeks. The caterpillar’s skin doesn’t grow with her, so she has to take it off. She spins a little thread, clings to it, puffs air under her skin until it splits. She stretches and twists, until she emerges dressed in a new and larger skin. She eats, grows and changes her skin three times.

Then she hides herself in a dark, cool place and spins a little button, hooking herself there. Once again she crawls from her old skin but this time she takes off her caterpillar feet, head and horns. Underneath is a cocoon, hanging by a black thread. She hangs for days in stillness; no longer a caterpillar, but a chrysalis, preparing her secret. Then one day a head can be seen – a foot comes out., She struggles and struggles. She must pump something from her body into her wings to strengthen them.

After a long time she emerges, fanning her wings slowly to dry them. Then she rests for hours. This beautiful butterfly has never flown. She had done nothing but a “caterpillar crawl”. Finally she soars into the air as though she has been flying forever.

We might be tempted to help release the butterfly from her cocoon. It is human nature to want to assist; but if we do, she will fall to the ground and die. By the struggle to free herself, she strengthens her wings enough to survive and fly.

Crystal Renn is butterfly pretty

‘Ring The New year With High Glamour Frills, Feathers Sequins And Dazzling Diamonds‘

photoshoot in Canadian Elle’s January issue (photographer: Leda & St. Jacques).

Antique Book Art ~ Rescue an abandoned book, and present it as a still life. Adorn a dilapidated atlas with delicate butterflies, their winged shapes the product of a butterfly craft punch. Glue a page from a discarded novel to the cover before affixing the butterflies with glue dots to look as if they fly off the page via Country Living

Australian artist Catherine Swan creates beautiful paper butterfly pieces. The butterflies are hand-cut from vintage magazines between the 50s and 60s evoking a nostalgic array of colors.